Conceived in Liberty Volume 2 - Ludwig von Mises Institute

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Indian War in North Carolina
No sooner had the North Carolina proprietary suppressed rebellion in 1711
than the colony became embroiled in a crucial Indian conflict. The Indians in
North Carolina had been growing increasingly restive. Not only was white
expansion driving them from their proclaimed lands and hunting grounds,
but a perhaps more embittering grievance was the common practice of kidnapping
Indians into slavery. In fact, so notorious was this practice that Pennsylvania,
in 1705, prohibited further "importation of Indian slaves from Carolina"
since it had "been observed to give the Indians of this province some
umbrage for suspicion and dissatisfaction."
Most dangerous of the Indian tribes was the powerful Tuscarora in central
North Carolina, one of the feared and disliked Iroquois nations. In the fall of
1711, the Tuscaroras, taking advantage of the turmoil of the late Thomas
Cary rebellion, launched a general attack on the white settlements. The attack
was particularly effective on the new and scattered southern settlements, but
the main center at Albemarle escaped devastation because Tom Blunt, the
Tuscarora chief in the vicinity, refused to join the war.
Governor Edward Hyde induced the Assembly to pass a law authorizing
conscription of all males between sixteen and sixty, and called on the neighboring
colonies for aid. The Virginia Assembly refused to vote the funds or
permit Governor Spotswood to send troops. South Carolina sent a strong military
force under Colonel John Barnwell. Barnwell's troop again demonstrated
the propensity of the Indians for mutual destruction—redounding to the benefit
of the whites—for it consisted largely of Creek, Yamassee, and Sioux
Indians. As was true of all other Iroquois, the aggressive Tuscaroras had
incurred the enmity of the other tribes of the region. Barnwell decisively
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